Nashville-based publishing company owns altweeklies in six mid-sized markets

Sometimes
you come to work, fire up the ol’ coffee maker and get straight to
all the funny websites you like to read before you get started. Other
times the boss calls a staff meeting and informs you that you work
for a different company now and
that new firewalls are going to block your fantasy baseball league
during work hours.
Today
CityBeat
employees were notified that effective immediately we are all part of
SouthComm Inc., a
Nashville-based publishing company that owns and operates alternative
weeklies in six mid-sized Midwestern and Southern markets.
The
change is a good thing for a number of reasons. Many of us at
CityBeat
are already fans of the nearest SouthComm paper — LEO
Weekly
in Louisville. It is obvious that SouthComm values the creative
presentation of local arts, music and culture and the thoughtful news
coverage readers have come to expect from CityBeat.
SouthComm’s other award-winning publications include Nashville
Scene,
The
Pitch
in Kansas City and Creative
Loafing
papers in Charlotte and Tampa.
We’re
actually quite proud that our editorial history and relevance to the
community were valued by SouthComm. The
company offers access to expanded resources currently not at our
disposal, and the SouthComm owners go way back with CityBeat’s
founding editor and publisher, making this situation more like “Join
our fun team and successful business model,” than “Give us the
keys and let us control you.”
While
CityBeat
will no longer be locally owned, the autonomy SouthComm has offered
its other publications and its continued interest in expanding its
portfolio is exciting as we continue to build upon our recent staff
changes and the success of other entities we operate, including the
MidPoint Music Festival and A-Line
Magazine.
SouthComm
CEO Chris Ferrell noted in the official press release CityBeat’s
body of work and the potential of the Cincinnati market:
“CityBeat
has a long history of covering the local government, music, arts, and
culture scene in Cincinnati,” Ferrell said. “We look forward to
having them as part of the SouthComm family of publications. We are
excited to expand into Cincinnati, which is a very good city for us
to build out our model of having multiple niche publications in each
market.”
The
immediate change will be noticed very little by our general audience,
as Dan
Bockrath will continue to serve as CityBeat
Publisher and we will continue to be locally operated. As part of the
acquisition, John Fox, one of the founding owners, will serve as a
consultant with SouthComm. Fox was CityBeat's
Editor and Co-Publisher from its inception in June 1994 until the end
of 2010, when he became Director of CityBeat Events. He leaves day-to-day responsibilities at CityBeat
and will be announcing an exciting new venture soon.Also as
part of the acquisition, founding owner Thomas R. Schiff departs as
CEO of Lightborne Publishing, the official owner of CityBeat,
A-Line
Magazine,
MidPoint and all of our other entities. We would be extremely remiss
in failing to recognize Tom’s unwavering support of CityBeat
over the past 18 years — without it the CityBeat
enterprise wouldn’t be what it is today.It’s
no secret that Cincinnati presents a challenging media landscape,
with the country's largest daily newspaper chain (Gannett, owner of
The
Cincinnati Enquirer)
and largest radio station chain (Clear Channel, owner of multiple AM
and
FM stations) poking their publicly traded practices into every corner
of our town. But their existence presents a rare opportunity to stand
out by continuing to offer readers the thoughtful and personal
experience they have come to appreciate from CityBeat.
If the quality of SouthComm’s other publications is any indication,
this acquisition is part of a new and exciting future for us.